We have been appointed by the owners of this mid-20th century bungalow in Hampshire to develop options to extend it outwards and upwards to provide more space for their family, and to create a strategy to improve the energy efficiency of the whole house while they maintain residence through the works.
It is intended to submit the scheme for planning permission during the summer of 2023.
Firs Field is a new-build three-bedroom private home in Warwickshire, designed to fit in with its context of agricultural buildings and barns, pitched rooves and corrugated fibre-cement cladding.
The house is divided into two volumes running north-west to south-east, with the living areas facing the south-west enjoying sunlight and views over the neighbouring field, and the bedroom areas located on the darker and cooler north-east side. The building is positioned so as to form two distinctive gardens, with the north garden providing a connection to the wider part of the adjacent field and the southern garden framed with the separate garage and storage building.
The rural nature of the site means the house needs to be as off-grid as possible. For this energy efficiency is key and it has been designed to Passivhaus standards, producing a building with exceptional thermal performance and airtightness which requires little additional energy for heating. On-site renewable power generation will be utilised to further reduce the need for a mains electricity connection or oil-based hot water and heating.
Mountain Fold were appointed by architects Blee Halligan as Passivhaus consultants up to the planning submission, and appointed directly by the client as architects for the technical design and construction stages. The house is currently under construction.
“[Mountain Fold] has been great at listening to what we want (and don’t want), coming up with a design we’re happy with, and helping us with our discussions with our local planning department, builders and suppliers.”
Client
The owners of this 1980’s brick- and concrete tile-clad dormer bungalow were looking to remodel and extend their home to bring open plan living and ensure sufficient space for their family as it grows older. On the ground floor the existing living room opens on to a new kitchen and dining area while other areas have been reworked to create a new snug / play room, and office and laundry spaces. Upstairs an extended bedroom and additional bedroom and bathroom both provide additional space for the children as well as room for guests.
The kitchen and dining space and new bedroom are encompassed in an additional bay which replicates the existing form extending the house to the side, while the enlarged bedroom sits above a new porch area and the existing garage to the front. The brown concrete tile cladding that currently adorns the first floor to the rear and side elevations is to be replaced with Siberian Larch, which also fully clads the porch and front bedroom framing the new entrance. This timber cladding will be allowed to naturally weather to a silver-grey finish.
Planning permission was granted in May of 2019, with full plans Building Control approval granted in October of 2019. It is currently on site.
Working in collaboration with Coast Architects, we have designed this five-bedroom villa and two-bedroom guest house in the Leeward area of Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Drawing on a contemporary Caribbean style, the villa employs deep overhanging eaves and pergolas to provide shade from the sunshine, while the doors and windows are orientated to take advantage of the prevailing winds across the site. The guest house sits to the rear of the site atop a double garage and store. In front of the living area and main bedrooms is a two-part swimming pool, with a shallow area for small children and sun loungers and a deeper area for swimming, across from which is a cabana, fire pit and barbecue area.
The house is predominantly clad in white render, with a Wallaba shingle roof. A flat-roofed native stone-clad slot containing a cantilevered staircase sits between a two-storey bedroom wing and the main central open plan living area. This slot extends out across the front of the garage and guest house and along the ground as a timber path. Internally fabric wallpaper and white painted walls are paired with natural materials such as a warm grey stone floor, and dark timber trims and cabinetry.
The project has been approved by the TCI planning department and a building permit issued, and full construction information has been produced.
Alongside Coast Architects, we worked closely with the client to develop the most suitable design and layout for this new beach front residence located in the stunning Emerald Point area of Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands, which is to function both as a home and a wedding venue. A large central open-plan living, dining, and kitchen area can be opened up directly onto the pool terrace while secondary kitchen areas provide additional food preparation space for events. The villa has six bedrooms, each with en-suite bathroom. Outside, a series of decks and terraces sit next to a large swimming pool with swim-up bar and provide a variety of open and covered spaces. An additional guest house provides a further two bedrooms and living areas.
The villa was conceived as a contemporary take on vernacular Caribbean architecture with a simple horizontal white painted timber clad form enveloped and sheltered by a solid white-rendered masonry frame. This framework has the dual function of shading both the interior and exterior spaces and providing extensive balcony areas. Voids in the frame delineate the balcony spaces and allow trees and planting to grow through, spanning floors and integrating the landscaping scheme with the architecture on both levels.
Solar panels on the roof provide hot water for the house and power the pumps for the swimming pool.
Mountain Fold have provided a full architectural service up to the building permit application. Construction was completed in 2020.
At Coast Architects Matt was senior project architect for this five-bedroom villa in the south-west of Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Named after a beautiful garden located at the western end of the world from Greek mythology and the nymphs of sunset who tended it, Hesperides House is designed to take full advantage of the ocean views that come with its location.
It is comprised of three separate buildings which together form a variety of connected internal and external spaces both communal and intimate. A framed formal entrance leads into a large open plan living and dining space which in turn extends through into the covered outdoor living area and swimming pool deck beyond. The buildings are laid out to shelter the central exterior area on the ocean side from the steady prevailing winds and the sun, and to create an enclosed courtyard garden to the rear. Architecturally it is partly embedded within and partly proud of the ironshore rock on which it sits, integrating with the site further with a progression of retained planting and new formal planters. This same planting is paired with extensive pergola elements to reduce the solar energy hitting the building and windows. Warm, natural materials are used throughout, matching a light grey limestone with light oak and cedar and a local stone-clad wall framing the entrance.
The villa utilises the large amount of sunshine that hits the Turks and Caicos Islands by using solar panels to provide hot water to the house and heat the swimming pool. Rainwater is harvested to a cistern beneath one of the rear bedroom.
In addition to designing the villa and monitoring its construction on site, Matt led the interior design, working with Design Studio to inhabit the house with a relaxed contemporary style.
Design copyright Coast Architects
Photography by Provo Pictures
The Beeches is a design for a new-build sustainable home, so named for the beautiful copse of beech trees in the middle of the 0.26 ha / 0.65 acre South Oxfordshire site. Mountain Fold were engaged as the architect to design the scheme in preparation for a pre-planning application submission.
The design flips the traditional house layout, with the living areas on the upper floor directly addressing the tree canopy. The master bedroom is also located up here, with two further bedrooms on the ground floor. Much of the ground floor is able to be locked off allowing separate occupation, for relatives or rental. The building is based on a simple, traditional barn form, with a cut-away to the upper floor forming a balcony to the living room. It is externally clad with vertical timber to the first floor and roof, and board-on-board cladding bringing texture to the ground floor. The cut-away is clad in contrasting aluminium. It is intended to be both energy efficient and incorporate numerous sustainable technologies, including a ground source heat pump, rainwater harvesting and photovoltaics.
We were commissioned to provide designs proposals to convert two rural barn buildings in the Dordogne in south-west France into holiday gites. The buildings were in a poor neglected state both inside and out, but showed a lot of character with period features.
Working closely with the client the designs proposed restoring the existing stone- and render-clad envelope, but sympathetically adapting the interior to incorporate new stairs and living accommodation. Both gite designs included a kitchen and open-plan living and dining areas on the ground floor. The first gite spanned three floors, with the bedrooms and bathroom on the upper two floors. The two-storey second gite included one of the bedrooms and a shower room on the ground floor, with the remaining bedrooms and a second bathroom on the first floor. The existing openings were retained with new doors and windows, and new rooflights brought in natural light to the upper floors.
We provided initial feasibility and concept design services, after which the scheme was taken onward through planning and construction by a local French architect.
